Dexterity

Version 0.18: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Dexterity (or DEX) is one of a character's three main attributes, along with strength and intelligence. It is important if you want to have high evasion.

Dexterity affects the following:

• Very slightly increases accuracy in combat.
• Increases the effect of Dodging skill on evasion.
• Increases the chances to stab monsters.
• Slightly increases stealth (3 per point - for comparison, boots of stealth give 50).
• Slightly increases your SH bonus with bucklers, shields or large shields.
• Increases the chance of doing auxiliary attacks.
• Increases the chance of doing retaliatory headbutts when you are a minotaur.

If you are casting spells, intelligence is nearly always better than dexterity, but dexterity is still much better than strength for most characters.

If your dexterity is ever reduced to 0 or lower, you will eventually suffer stat zero.

History

Prior to 0.18, each weapon type had a strength weight that determined how much dexterity contributed to damage and accuracy. Now dexterity increases accuracy equally for all weapons, and does not affect damage.